21 Facts About Glenn Barr

Albert Glenn Barr OBE was a politician from Derry, Northern Ireland, who was an advocate of Ulster nationalism.

Glenn Barr went on to join the Loyalist Association of Workers in the early 1970s and from there became involved in the Ulster Defence Association.

Glenn Barr served as Brigadier of the North-West Brigade of the UDA, which later became known as the Londonderry and North Antrim Brigade.

Around this time Glenn Barr became involved in politics by joining the Vanguard Unionist Progressive Party and was elected to the Northern Ireland Assembly, which had been set up under the Sunningdale Agreement, in 1973.

Glenn Barr soon became a leading figure in the opposition to Sunningdale agreement and effectively led the Ulster Workers' Council strike that brought about the collapse of the new power-sharing government.

Glenn Barr was chairman of the Ulster Loyalist Central Co-ordinating Committee, a group containing Ulster Workers' Council representatives, politicians and paramilitaries that directed the strike.

Glenn Barr claimed when he returned that Gaddafi, who at the time was funding the Provisional IRA, had expressed a firm interest in providing money for an independent Northern Ireland.

The trip however, on which Glenn Barr was accompanied by Tommy Lyttle, Andy Robinson and Harry Chicken, was widely condemned by unionist politicians because of the purportedly left-wing nature of the Gaddafi regime whilst the same reason was used a basis by Charles Harding Smith to launch a loyalist feud against UDA leader Andy Tyrie, whose idea the trip had been.

Glenn Barr, who had exchanged angry words with Ian Paisley on a few occasions when both men were central to the 1974 strike, publicly distanced himself from the attempted strike organised by Paisley's United Unionist Action Council in 1977.

Glenn Barr had been invited back into the UDA after the failure of the second strike, with a feeling within the movement that he had been proven right with his opposition to the failed initiative and so would be an asset politically to the movement.

Whilst there, Glenn Barr took a leading role in the production of Beyond the Religious Divide, a document which sought to set out a framework for a move towards eventual independence for Northern Ireland.

Glenn Barr became increasingly disillusioned with what he saw as the callousness of unionist politicians towards their electorate, and the blind loyalty of that electorate.

The UDA failed to recommend the proposals to its members and, as a result, Glenn Barr drifted away from the NUPRG, leaving politics altogether in 1981 to return to community work in Derry.

Glenn Barr set up a scheme for disadvantaged young people by which they would receive low-wage employment and training under the government ACE scheme.

Glenn Barr briefly emerged from his political retirement in 1994 when he joined his old friend from the strike Andy Tyrie in heading up an initiative to gain funding for the Ulster Democratic Party.

Glenn Barr appeared set for a more active return in 1998 when he took up a seat on the Parades Commission, a move roundly condemned by nationalists, given Barr's UDA past, and one that saw resignations from the board in protest.

Ultimately Glenn Barr himself resigned on 24 April 1998, along with loyalist Tommy Cheevers not long after the Commission had banned an Apprentice Boys parade from the nationalist lower Ormeau Road.

Glenn Barr had worked closely with Paddy Harte, a former Irish Government minister, on promoting awareness of Irish Catholic participation in both World Wars.

Glenn Barr died at Altnagelvin hospital on 24 October 2017 at the age of 75.

Glenn Barr was interred in Altnagelvin cemetery after a service at Ebrington Presbyterian church in Derry.

Glenn Barr was married to Isa, with whom he had four children.